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The objective of this paper is to analyse the automotive value chains in the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur – Mercosur) and the European Union (EU), focusing on the ability to develop technology endogenously, distinctive of the developed countries. The methodology will focus on the descriptive analysis of variables relevant to this object of study, such as production, foreign trade and technological development of the automotive chain in both regions. The main results show that the efforts and results of innovation are concentrated in the traditional European automotive core; while the production activities that are located in the European automotive periphery and in Mercosur are dissociated from those of technological development, given that the technology is mainly adopted from the automotive technological development core countries.

Forty years ago, Albert Hirschman emphasized that, in its decline, the theory of economic development had become fragmented into very different disciplines. At present, given the resurgence of both the problem and the theory of economic development, this fragmentation nourishes with very diverse elements (which are analyzed in depth) this theoretical resurgence. However, recovering a general conception of the problem without losing those specific contributions represents a significant intellectual challenge. The purpose of this paper is to review some of these topics, so as to contribute to the current path of economic thinking, which is revitalizing the concept of economic development.